Gwen Hughes

Gwen Hughes has left a lasting mark on Atlanta’s jazz community, earning mentions in both the nonfiction swing history This Joint Is Jumpin’ and the mystery novel Dancing Made Easy by Phillip DePoy, one installment in his Flap Tucker series. Her Touch of Life album received Grammy recognition in the categories of Best Jazz Performance and Best Jazz Female Recording. Those honors came after an unconventional path that began not with jazz singing but with fronting a rock & roll group, followed by periods spent performing show tunes and working as an actor. Once jazz’s intricate possibilities caught her attention, she devoted herself fully to the style. Hughes developed a distinctive approach as a song stylist, drawing from the legacies of Peggy Lee and Frank Sinatra while counting Ella Fitzgerald among her key inspirations. She leads the ensemble known as the Retro Jazz Kats, whose roster includes drummer Forrest Robinson, bassist Neal Starkey, guitarist Steve Cunningham, saxophonists Sam Skelton, John Freeman, and Nick Longo, trombonists Adam Mewherter and Bob Lewis, trumpeters Joe Gransden and Ken Gregory, and pianists Bill Anschell, Arthur Turner, Bob Cardone, and Bill Wilson.